Tonight there is a party happening on the pool deck (deck 15) on the Norwegian Epic which is docked at the port of Miami. Many hundreds of crew members are crowded together, all without masks, as they intermingle with the city of Miami in the background of the NCL cruise ship.
All of this is in direct violation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which specifies that crew members must observe a distance of at least six feet and wear masks while outside of their private cabins.
This is essentially identical to the party on the Norwegian Escape last Thursday when a party was videotaped by a crew member who wished to remain anonymous. We reported on the event in an article which we posted on May 2nd titled “Ridiculously Overcrowded” Norwegian Escape Sails to Miami.
The images were subsequently published in an article tiled “Shocking images emerge from ‘ridiculously overcrowded’ Norwegian Escape cruise ship that is repatriating 3,800 non-European crew members to Miami as staff complain about tiny shared rooms and NO social distancing.”
We posted one of the videos of the current party, which were taken by a crew member who wishes to remain anonymous, on our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/cruiselawnews/videos/233301747939058/
After we posted the video on our Facebook page, there was an overwhelmingly negative response by crew members on the Epic. Many crew members, like the crew on the Norwegian Escape, argued that the CDC order is not enforceable. One crew member, a sound technician employed by NCL, flatly says that “NCL does not care about the CDC.” This was probably the most transparent comment possible under these embarrasing circumstances.
A typical response was something nonsensical like this: The “CDC is not a legitimate authority. They are corrupt Communist mouthpiece and involved in Human Trafficking.”
Many crew members tried to defend the cruise line by suggesting that there allegedly have been no positive COVID-19 cases since the passengers left the ships over a month ago. But the fact is that there have been crew members who have tested positive with COVID-19 on some of the NCL ships which NCL has assembled the passengers together.
NCL has commingled crew members from the Norwegian Sun, Norwegian Encore, Norwegian Biss, Norwegian Gem, and the Norwegian Star.
Over this past weekend, we reported on the death of the senior ship doctor on the Norwegian Gem. Other crew members reportedly tested positive for COVID-19, including a nurse who became seriously ill.
Also, a crew member was landed yesterday for medical treatment from the Norwegian Epic without explanation which crew members fear is is related to coronavirus.
The comments from crew members, who are mostly openly contemptuous and defiant of the CDC and its guidelines, can be reviewed here.
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